The present invention relates to an equipment adapted to be installed on a working machine such as, for example, a power shovel or the like, for crushing a structure such as reinforced concrete or the like.
Conventionally, pulling-down operation or working of an existing building attendant upon construction work or the like has been effected in the following manner. That is, crushing and removal of a concrete structure rely upon methods of construction such as crushing due to a rock drill of air-hammer type, destruction due to striking of a large steel ball, and so on. However, these methods of construction have various problems. That is, the methods of construction cause violent noises and vibration, resulting in a problem of environmental pollution. Further, the methods of construction require a large working space, and are also accompanied with danger.
In recent years, a structure crushing instrument has been developed, which is of type in which hydraulic pressure is utilized to clamp the structure to crush the same at low noise. A method of construction has widely been employed, in which the structure crushing equipment is mounted to a working machine such as a power shovel or the like as an attachment, to crush the structure. Furthermore, since the structure includes reinforcement, pipes, steel frames and so on, an apparatus has also been developed, in which the crushing instrument is additionally provided with a tool for squashing the reinforcement and so on and for cutting the same.
The above-described crushing equipment comprises a pair of arms whose respective forward ends are generally provided with crushing blades and/or cutting blades for clamping, crushing and cutting the structure. Intermediate portions of the respective arms are pivotally mounted to and are supported by a frame. Rearward ends of the respective arms are connected to a piston rod of a hydraulic piston-cylinder unit. The pair of arms are arranged such that actuation of the piston rod causes the blades on the forward ends of the respective arms to be moved toward and away from each other, thereby clamping the structure. In such crushing equipment, however, the hydraulic piston-cylinder unit is so arranged that the piston rod moves parallel to a tangent line or a moving locus of the arms. That is, the hydraulic piston-cylinder unit is arranged perpendicularly to the center line of the crushing equipment, i.e., the clamping center line between the crushing blades. By this reason, the width of the entire crushing equipment increases, making the operation in a narrow space difficult.
In view of the above, a structure crushing equipment has been proposed, in which a hydraulic piston-cylinder unit is mounted longitudinally or vertically to a bracket member to be mounted to a working machine, and actuation of the cylinder is transmitted to a pair of arms through a link mechanism, thereby moving crushing blades toward and away from each other. Such crushing equipment is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent publication No. Sho 58-785, Japanese utility model application laid-open No. Sho 60-61336 or the like.
In the crushing equipment of vertical cylinder type described above, the moving direction, that is, the clamping direction of the crushing blades is determined depending upon attachment of the bracket member of the crushing equipment to the boom of the working machine. Therefore, it is impossible to alter the posture of the crushing equipment unless the working machine is moved and swiveled. In the actual structure crushing working, the clamping force of the crushing blades cannot necessarily be applied to an object to be crushed, always in an appropriate direction, depending upon the configuration of the object and the relative position between the working machine and the object. For example, a case often occurs when the crushing blades are abutted obliquely against the faces of the concrete wall. By this reason, the clamping force of the crushing blades does not effectively act upon the object to be crushed, resulting in a decrease in the working performance. Further, reaction force from the structure causes the crushing blades to be twisted so that wear or damage occurs in the cutting blades.
In view of the above, a crushing equipment has been considered in which a hydraulic piston-cylinder unit is made angularly movable relatively to the boom of the working machine. In this case, however, since hydraulic-fluid supply ports move in their positions in accordance with the angular movement of the hydraulic piston-cylinder unit, hoses feeding hydraulic fluid from a hydraulic fluid source installed on the working machine, to the cylinder is required to be lengthened. By this reason, accidents tend to occur such as winding of the hoses around the working machine, twining of the hoses around each other, breaking of the hoses and so on. As countermeasures of such accidents, a hydraulic-fluid supply device is employed which is of rotary valve type disclosed in for example, Japanese patent application No. Sho 61-162675. However, the hydraulic-fluid supply device is complicated in construction, and is many in number of component parts and, therefore, a malfunction of fluid leakage often occurs due to shock at the crushing working, surge pressure of the hydraulic cylinder, impingement of scattering crushed pieces, or the like.
The conventional crushing equipment disclosed in, for example, the aforesaid Japanese utility model application laid-open No. Sho 60-61336 is arranged such that the cylinder of the hydraulic piston-cylinder unit moves vertically to actuate the link mechanism. Since the cylinder moves while pins or the like provided on the cylinder are guided by guide slots, guide grooves or the like, concrete waste, reinforcement waste or the like tends to enter the guide sections to lodge the same, resulting in causes of inoperativeness and malfunction.
Apart from the above, when a reinforced concrete structure such as a building or the like is destroyed, a mixture of the reinforcement and the concrete lumps is produced. Accordingly, as a post-treatment after the destruction of the structure, workings or operations are required such as working for separating the reinforcement and the concrete lumps in the mixture from each other, working for crushing the concrete lumps to small pieces for use as crushed stones for roadway, and so on.
As the crushing equipment for use in such post-treatment, a crushing equipment is known which is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent publication No. Sho 61-28839. The known crushing equipment is arranged such that concrete lumps are crushed to small pieces by a bucket-like member having a stationary blade and a movable blade.
The crushing equipment of the type described above has such a problem that the crushing equipment cannot well scoop up the mixture of the concrete lumps and the reinforcement, because of hindrance of the reinforcement. Accordingly, when it is desired to crush the concrete lumps to small pieces, the concrete lumps and the reinforcement are first separated from each other by an equipment separate from the crushing equipment, and then the concrete lumps are accumulated in heaps so as to become easy to be scooped up. Subsequently, the concrete lumps are scooped up by a crushing equipment like one described above, and are crushed by the same. In this manner, since the concrete lumps and the reinforcement are intertwined with each other and the concrete lumps are bonded to the reinforcement, working is required for crushing the concrete lumps to small pieces, thereby separating the concrete lumps from the reinforcement. It is desirable that crushing of the concrete lumps and separation of the concrete lumps and the reinforcement from each other are treated simultaneously and parallel with each other. To this end, an equipment is desirable in which crushing of the concrete lumps and separation of the concrete lumps and the reinforcement from each other to accumulate the concrete lumps can be carried out by the single equipment.